American Troops in Northern Russia and Siberia:  1918 -1920

by John Culloton (used with permission)

In September 1917, the Russian Provisional Government asked the US for help in maintaining the Trans-Siberian railway. Two hundred eighty-five men from American railway companies were selected to form the Russian Railway Service Corps (RRSC). It was directed by the general manager of the Great Northern Railway, George Emerson, first Assistant to John Stevens head of the RRSC. 

All the men were given Army commissions for the essentially nonmilitary project, but were not really considered part of the regular Army.  The 285 railroader officers and skilled mechanics were commissioned to preserve the Trans-Siberian railway. They established 14 station units distributed the length of the Chinese Eastern Trans-Siberian railroad to Osomsk.

The Inter-Allied Railway Agreement was the result of chaotic conditions along the railway and tensions caused by the Allied Intervention and the civil war, not to mention the Czech control over a large portion of the railway. In November 1918, the US developed a plan for a commission that would operate the railway until the Russians were able to resume control. The commission was composed of representatives from each allied government participating in the Siberian intervention and headed by John Stevens. Faced with increasing partisan activity, the plan was implemented in April 1919. Three of the Allies; the US, Japan, and China were given a sector of the Trans-Siberian railroad to guard.

The importance of the Trans-Siberian railway cannot be under emphasized.  Control of the railroad meant control of the only major logistics and communication line. It also meant access to massive stockpiles of munitions, food, fuel, coal, and other war supplies that the Allied shipping had stockpiled in the ports of both Archangel and Vladivostok. At the end of 1914, there was over 330,000 tons of coal alone sitting in Archangel. US War Department estimated the tonnage of supplies sitting in Vladivostok at 400,000 tons of steel, copper, brass, lead, barbed wire, rails, automobiles and trucks, machine tools, and munitions, all worth over $1 billion. 

Warehouses were loaded to the roof and large piles of supplies stacked outside sheltered from the weather by tarpaulins. Some of those supplies had been here for over two years awaiting movement over the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

After the Tzar's government fell, the US promptly recognized the new pro-western Provisional Government and extended a $100 million credit to them for purchase of supplies, set aside huge stocks of railway material for shipment to Russia, and sent John F. Stevens, a distinguished railroad engineer, and several other prominent railroad operators and engineers to Russia to assist in their operations. Stevens spent several months in Russia studying the railroads between Petrograd and Vladivostok. They reported that almost all of the equipment was outdated, in poor repair, and poorly managed; but the lines themselves were in surprisingly good condition. The November revolution prevented him from inspecting the northern lines between Moscow and Archangel.  When American troops arrived they discovered that the single-track, narrow-gauge railroad to Archangel was primitive by any standard.

On March 3, 1918, Russia had negotiated a separate peace with Germany  allowing Germany to exploit the resources of the Ukraine - minerals, wheat, oil -- and thus lesson the strangling effects of the British Blockade.  It also allowed the transfer of forty divisions from the Eastern Front thereby giving the Germans numerical superiority in the trenches of France.

Speculation had many reasons why the American forces were sent to Russia; to reopen the Eastern Front with the aid of other nations and the Russian autocratic regime, to protect war supplies shipped to Russia and the railroad, to ensure that other nations did not, by their presence, obtain unfair commercial advantages, to stabilize and influence the autocratic regime by intervention in a civil war.  The British openly supported the White Russian regime and used the forces under their command in an attempt to suppress Soviet Bolshevism.

President Wilson agreed to send troops to North Russia after repeated requests were made by the British.  General John J. Pershing selected units of the Michigan National Guard’s 85th. Division; the 339th Infantry Regiment, one battalion of the 310th Engineers, the 337th Field Hospital and the 337th Ambulance Company, totaling 5,500 officers and men to proceed from England to Murmansk on June 1, 1918.  While at sea, influenza struck killing 100 and putting 500 on sick call.  Colonel George E. Stewart received orders to put in at Archangel instead of Murmansk and to put the 339th under the command of British Major General Fredrick C. Poole.  They arrived on August 2, 1918.  Additionally, there was also a small Marine detachment in Northern Russia and 50 sailor sharpshooters from the USS Olympia.

On August 2, 1918, Major General William Sidney Graves, commander of the combat-ready 8th Infantry Division, Regular Army, at Camp Fremont was directed to meet the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, in Kansas City.  Graves was informed that he would not proceed to Europe with the 8th Division but rather assume command of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia (AEFS) which was to be made up of 5,000 men from the 8th Infantry Division and the 27th and 31st Infantry regiments, one field hospital, one ambulance company and Company “D” 53rd Telegraph Battalion being sent to Siberia from the Philippines.  The 8th Division personnel were to fill the two regiments from the Philippines to war strength.  Baker handed Graves a sealed envelope which contained President Woodrow Wilson’s Aide-memoire of future United States’ policy in Russia, non-intervention in the sovereignty of Russia and her internal affairs.  Graves received orders to maintain his force as an independent command and assist in the withdrawal of the 40,000-man Czech force that had fought in Russia against Germany and Austria. Despite constant criticism and pressure from British and White Russian officials, he succeeded in his mission, for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919.  Additionally, Graves had to walk a thin line between the conflicting demands of the War Department, State Department and even the American Red Cross.

Graves determined that he would form his command into 250 man provisional companies with men from each of the states: if there were heavy casualties, Graves didn't want them all from the same place.  By August 10, Graves had detached 5,002 men from the 8th Infantry Division which included forty-eight sergeants, ninety-six corporals, thirty-nine first and 24 second lieutenants.  His command left San Francisco on August 15th aboard the Sheridan and Thomas, converted cattle ships.  He reached Vladivostok on the bay of the Golden Horn on September 1, where he merged his command with 3,011 officers and men of the 27th (53 officers and 1537 enlisted men) and 31st (46 officers and 1375 enlisted men) Infantry Regiments, Regular Army, who had left Manila for Vladivostok three weeks before. 

Graves’ Americans joined 70,000 Japanese, 829 British, 1,400 Italian, and 107 Ammahese troops under French command.  Canada sent troops both on the task force to northern Russia and to Siberia, the latter force being called the CSEF (Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force.) It constituted a little more than a brigade and was recalled in 1919.   Canadian units included the 259th and 260th Battalions, No. 6 Signal Section, 16 Field Company CE, and 20th Canadian Machine Gun Co. headquarters, staff and supply units, as well as 'B' Squadron Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The cemetery at Churkin, Vladivostok holds the graves of CSEF men who died (a total of 18 at this cemetery ). The task of the CSEF was similar to that of the Americans, to protect stores and supplies should the Russians be able to use them. The CSEF spent most of their time on various works projects and were eventually recalled.

On June 27, 1919, the US troops left Archangel.  The troops assigned to Northern Russia (Archangel) were from the Michigan National Guard, called up for service in France.  Political entities and Michigan newspapers questioned why these forces were continued on active duty after the Armistice and why they were involved in the internal politics of another government.  The 85th Division troops were returned to the United States and deactivated from Federal Service.

On April 1, 1920, the US troops left Vladivostok.  The 8th Division troops and the regiments from the Philippines were Regular Army and were returned to the Philippines for continued service.

Members of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia and European Russia are entitled to wear the below medal.

Victory Medal, World War I

Established by Congress in 1919 and awarded to members of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps for service between:

•06 Apr 1917 and 11 Nov 1918 (Armistice Day),

•12 Nov 1918 and 05 Aug 1919 with American Expeditionary Forces in European Russia,

•12 Nov 1918 and 01 Apr 1920 with AEF in Siberia.